canonicals, consisting of a very handsome gown, cassock, Chaplain's silk scarf, and Master of Arts hood, as an Easter gift.

COLONIAL.

On the 20th of March last, her Majesty the Queen Dowager laid the first stone of the Protestant Church of St. Paul, at Malta.

On the 28th of November, the Bishop of Calcutta laid the first stone of the Native Christian Church, in Cornwallis-square, Calcutta, about which such a noise was raised some months ago. It is intended for the Rev. Krishna Mohun Banerjee.

CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT IN INDIA.

It appears, by a return lately laid before Parliament, that the total cost to the nation of the Church Establishment in the East Indian Company's territories, for the year 1836, was £85,705. This amount does not include the sums paid out of the public money for building or repairing Churches, or the sum of £7,310 defrayed at home, for pensions and furlough allowances on account oft he Church Establishment.

TWO NEW BISHOPRICKS.-At the meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, on Friday, April 19th, it was announced that the Government had agreed to appoint a Bishop for Newfoundland and Bermudas, in the place of the two Archdeacons of those islands. The Archdeaconry of Newfoundland is at present vacant; and it is understood that Dr. Spencer, the Archdeacon of Bermudas, (brother of the present Bishop of Madras,) will be nominated to the new See. The

allowance from Government will be the same as that granted to the two Archdeacons, which amounted together to £700 per annum, and the Society have agreed for the present to vote £500 per annum in addition.

MISCELLANEOUS.

DIOCESAN EDUCATION.-Most numerous and highly-respectable Meetings of the friends and supporters of National Education, based on the principles and doctrines of the Church of England, have lately been held at Aylesbury, Liverpool, St. Helen's, Warrington, Manchester, Shrewsbury, Newcastle, Staffordshire, Leicester, Salisbury, Wolverhampton, &c. &c.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION.-An address has been presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury by a considerable body of the Prelates of England and Wales, in which they entreat his Grace to withdraw any sanctian he may have given to the Bill now pending in Parliament for the reduction of our Cathedral establishments. The address expresses the most respectful and affectionate attachment to the Archbishop and deference to his high authority, but at the same time declares the firm determination of the Prelates by whom it is signed to oppose a measure which they consider would prove most injurious to the interests of religion and to the welfare and stability of the Established Church. The address is signed by the Bishops of Winchester, Llandaff, Worcester, Rochester, Carlisle, Ely, St. Asaph, Bangor, Oxford, Bath and Wells, and St. David's.

NOTICES TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

"Village Conversations "-" Canons of the Scotch Church." "The Apostolical Succession," and several other articles and notices of books, are unavoidably deferred to our next.

The packet from near Settle, in Craven, has arrived, and its contents shall be returned if not used. We are much obliged to our good friend for his approbation of our labours and recommendations of the Magazine. We quite agree with the latter part of his note. There was no fault in us.

"F. G."-will find a solution to his (her?) doubt in an early Number, as we intend to give a series of expositions of all those parts of Scripture which the protestant and popish dissenters quote against us, and Mark 9, 38, and 39, will be one of the first considered.

"A Member of the Church of England" and "T. C." have our best thanks for their friendly letters. "T. H. W." is under consideration, as also " A. C." and "A. A. F."

"S. M. B." has done us service in forwarding the paper containing the letters of" Britannicus," to whom we believe we are very well known.

"Alleyne," whose letter is dated from Horsham, should have sent his name. He needs have no fear of our consistent Churchmanship. We can tell him that one of the soundest Bishops in the land, who knows our principles well, wrote to us the other day, thus:-" I am so entirely satisfied with the principles of THE CHURCH MAGAZINE, that I have ordered it for myself, and have recommended it to others." Surely this will satisfy him. As for giving portraits of Clergymen who do not agree with us, we think an entrance for sound opinions may thus be obtained where they are most needed.

The Rev. H. Smith's package has arrived, and the papers from Kirkaldy Fife. "F. D. L." shall have a private note from us soon and so shall "W. T. H. F." "Lines written in sickness" are hardly suitable.. 'L. M. N." should have sent us his name. Mr. Chaffin's request will probably be complied with in time "R. A. H.'s" letter in our next. Mr. Price's letter to the Bishop of Exeter only disgraces the writer. "Georgius" may read, for his answer, the fable of The Old Man and his Ass." "A 'Subscriber " will find his answer in the reply to "F. G.," above. "Jane," at Stroud, is thanked for her papers. "An Attendant at St. George's, Hanover Square," can, perhaps, enable us to gratify his wishes. "Fitzmorris" will see his wish partially complied with. We should be glad to see a specimen of an epitome of the Canons-it might be very useful.

All Communications must be addressed (post paid) to the Editor of The Church Magazine, 14. Paternoster Row, London.

We intend in future, whenever possible, to accompany each Portrait with a brief Memoir of its original, as in the present number. The excellent Engraving which we now give may be taken as a specimen of those which are to follow.

The Right Rer. Charles Richard Summer DB Lord Bishop of Winchester.

& Prince of the West Nobles the Order of the Garie

DID we not know that the world at present is little better than a, mere school of children, with an infinite diversity of talents and attainments, judging variously, according to their several abilities, it would be astonishing what whimsical conceptions men even of considerable education will form respecting religion. Some very well-intentioned persons will, for one thing, decry all manner of religious controversy, as not only unnecessary or vain, but absolutely injurious. They will tell you, that it is of no use to argue and dispute with men of opposite opinions; that there is no probability of convincing them of error; that many men fashion their creeds, as they do their dress, according to their tastes and fancies; and that others make a trade of religion, and adopt and maintain them agreeably to their temporal interest; that many, and perhaps themselves, have made up their minds on points of doctrine, and that no power on earth shall turn them; that men enter controversy with a full determination to abide by their own prejudices; that a man convinced against his will, is of the same, opinion still; that there is no possibility of proving the truth to the satisfaction of all minds; that unanimity on the great articles of revealed religion is the vision of an enthusiast; that there always have been wide differences upon them, and always will be; that unity of sentiment on Christian faith and practice is physically impossible; that opinions are the result of cranial conformations; and, to put a period to an almost interminable series of similar observations, that contradiction and opposition only serve to engender and perpetuate strife and animosity, and that the best means of conciliating an opponent in matters of religion, are the works of charity and love.

Now these, and such like sentences, as far as they have a tendency to check and suppress all legitimate disputation on theological subjects, must not expect from our hands the least quarter whatever. Under that limitation, our hearts are quite hardened against all such amusing imaginations. We have ourselves caught the general epidemic. Amidst the endless variety of opinions which is now dividing the religious world, we have had the temerity to form conceptions of our own, and to imagine that on all the principal points at present controverted, the truth is ascertainable. We see enough to believe that unanimity on them is possible, and, in process of time, not at all improbable; that in spite of all the various protuberances of the human skull, the wise Creator of that habitation of the intellect has not seen any physical impossibilities to so desirable an agreement; that He has commanded men to be of one mind on at least the chief truths of the Gospel; that disputaNO. VI. VOL. i.

S

tions on existing differences do not engender strife, for that strife is already engendered; and that if they be conducted with propriety, they may be the means of terminating that discord which is matter of the deepest regret to all truly pious minds. We do not see how it is possible for any religionist to be convinced of his erroneous faith, by merely charitable actions, unless one of those actions be, to labour to produce conviction by fair and appropriate argumentation. We are at a loss to conceive how the Socinian, for instance, can be persuaded of the truth of the Atonement, and of the operations of the Spirit, if we only clothe his nakedness; or how the Papist could discern the sinfulness of the doctrine of transubstantiation from experiencing the most Christian hospitality; or how the Independent could be enlightened on Church government, were we to exercise towards him all those beautiful qualities of charity which are literally attributed to that virtue in the compendious description of St. Paul. And whatever may be the objections with any to religious disputes, those objections appear not to have prevailed in the minds of Christ and his Apostles; and these extraordinary persons we hope we are far from singular in regarding as infinitely higher authority than any speculatists of these, as they are called, enlightened times. We never find that they suffered error to predominate without contradiction, remonstrance, and argument, from any fear of their absolute impolicy and inutility. We will not attempt to go into detail on this subject. Suffice it to say, that the ministry of our Saviour amongst the Jews, and of the Apostles among the unconverted Gentiles, was almost entirely a ministry of controversy; and that their controversial labours were not confined to unbelievers. Controversy is the prevailing theme in the Epistles to several of the early Churches: for example, to those of the Hebrews, of Corinth, Galatia, and Rome; and that St. James himself argues very earnestly on that still much agitated question concerning faith and works. We also take the liberty to dissent from those unqualified abhorrers of all controversy on other grounds. Those treasures of instruction to uninspired teachers of religion, the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, abound with inculcations and expositions of the duty of correcting the errors of the heretical; and though last, and certainly least, yet by no means undeserving of special observation, our Scriptural and Apostolic Church has required of her Ministers to "be ever ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word."

It may be perfectly true, that men have formed their opinions from carnal motives, and hold them with carnal views, and that no earthly power can convert them; but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, and though all earthly power must own its insufficiency for the work, there is a power on the earth, but not of the earth, which may probably prevail-the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We even think that it is possible, and not extremely difficult, so to expound that Word, that the mouths of those who are of a contrary part shall be stopped, and that they themselves shall be ashamed, "having no evil thing to say of you."-Titus i. 11, ii. 8. We think this, of a hundred questions, which now, to the eternal shame of human nature, divide this kingdom against itself. And the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. By that sword of the Spirit, the man of the stoutest and most conceited heart may be induced to sacrifice his false opinions, rather than endanger his soul-to do what is good in the sight of God, in preference to that which has hitherto been right in his own eyes. At all events, it is of surpassing importance; and,